My journey through life with boys, our real food adventure, and finding joy in the mundane.

Menu

Tag Archives: dinner planning

Well, tomorrow begins the Fall Food Foundation Detox. (There is still time to join in!) With it, comes weekly dinner menus. I have to plan, or I will be rocking in a corner each day with a bag of chips.

Thursday: I have had a large grass fed roast in my freezer for a while, and could not find a recipe the seemed right. I came across this crock pot balsamic roast beef one, and I am going to see how it goes. We will have burrito bowls (a la chipotle) using the meat.

Scallops, pork tenderloin, beef tacos and the shrimp with zucchini noodles were ALL amazing dinners. I thought for sure the zucchini noodles were going to be gross since they looked like slop, but they were SO good!

The last highlight for the week was actually a rare treat! My sweet friend found a recipe for almond butter protein balls. I snacked on them all week!

Here is the menu for this week:

Monday: Chicken thighs stuffed with avocado and cheese, then wrapped in bacon, (inspired by this recipe) with roasted garlic butter asparagus.

Tuesday: Turkey and black bean burgers (using almond flour instead of breadcrumbs) with a garden salad. Dave will have his on a bun, and I’ll just fork mine. 🙂

Wednesday: Planning to give this zucchini lasagna a go. I will use a sugar free pasta sauce, and will add some ground beef.

Saturday: Asparagus with prosciutto and egg. This might sound gross, but Dave and I LOVE this meal. We do not go to all of the trouble in the recipe. We simply steam the asparagus, frizzle the proscuitto and fry an egg to break over the asparagus. You have to try it.

Sunday: Since we did not get a chance to have these on a previous menu, we will try Fish tacos. I will have these in lettuce wraps instead of on a tortilla. Here is a pic of what they looked like the last time I made them. Cannot wait!!!

Lunches were mostly leftovers thrown into a salad, or a refrig scrounge that made a great meal as a whole. (Brie on approved crackers, fruit, prosciutto, raw veggies)

Dinners were in flux a bit as we had some last minute plans. We also had more food than was needed which allowed for a leftover night. Fajitas, salmon, and chicken/avocado burgers were amazing! I moved the chicken quinoa to tonight, skipped the fish tacos and curry stew, and then had an impromptu dinner at my parent’s house for the 4th. I brought some pastured rib-eyes and chicken thighs to bbq, along with a salad and watermelon. SO good.

I was able to resist treats and wine which might mean that my tastes are changing a bit. We shall see if I dive into a tub of cookie dough once this detox is complete. 🙂

Saturday: Whole chicken will be cooked to supply chicken for a few meals/lunches. The first one will be a Strawberry chicken salad with a strawberry vinaigrette that is also in the recipe. (Can.not.wait to make this y’all)

Sunday: Chicken salad with the remains of the whole chicken, plain yogurt, a touch of dijon, salt/pepper, sliced grapes, sliced apples and almonds. I will have mine in a lettuce wrap and Dave will most likely choose a sandwich.

I am happy to report that I survived my first week. Dare I say….it was not as bad as I thought!

Here are a few things to report from the week:

I do still need coffee. Turns out coffee is actually good with just whole milk or half and half. Who knew!?

By the end of day 2, I was a jerk and my belly was not happy with me. I gave up my fiber supplement for the month as it contains sugar. (This was an unexplainable loss folks.) I was back to feeling “normal” in both my attitude and digestion by day 4.

Could it be possible that my complexion is improving already? I did also switch to a cool new night creme, so it could be a coincidence. Regardless, several people have made comments.

It is REALLY hard to be the only one in my house that is doing this. Dave’s food journey is his food journey, so I did not force him to give this a go. Cooking something different for my boys (hubs included), or a modified version of what I have been eating is pretty rough. Most nights, I have served what I have served what I have served, and Dave got to benefit from a healthier meal.

I am SUPER grateful for my local butcher (go pay him a visit please and support local!), and my CSA because they both allow me the option to keep fresh, high quality food on hand. I might even incorporate the farmer’s market next weekend.

Recap on things I ate last week:

Breakfasts went well. Nothing life changing. I did significantly under-boil close to a dozen pastured eggs, which was a crushing blow. Besides that, I have not been challenged by my options. Oatmeal with whole milk and applesauce carried me through.

Lunch was mostly left-overs and salads. Generally, I struggle with getting my lunch packed up before heading out for the day, then find myself snacking on unhealthy things while I am out. This week, I realized that it only takes a few minutes to plan ahead, and bring both snacks and a hearty lunch. Victory. When I was home for lunch, it usually looked something like this:

I stuck to the dinner plan. Wins included my very favorite whole chicken in my crock pot which fed us for a few nights, and also was added to a few lunch salads throughout the week, meatballs (seared in bacon grease, then baked through), chopped salad with quinoa/apples/sweet potatoes, and the chipotle chicken sweet potatoes (no image because I ate them too fast). All recipe links are in previous week’s menu.

The only dinner that was not a hit was the pho/shrimp soup. I put in too many spices that competed with the flavor of my broth, and it was HOT that evening which made consuming soup less than ideal. I might try it again with some corrections.

Here is what is on the menu for this week. Only including links to dinners. I will post what worked and did not work for breakfast/lunch in my recap next week.

Monday: Steak fajitas. I will have this without tortillas, maybe over salad or rice. I will use the meat for lunch the first few days of the week. I got a massive portion to supply meat for a few meals and lunches. Cook once, eat multiple times y’all.

Second favorite we actually made last night. On a whim, I bought some grass fed steak at whole foods because it was on sale. We lightly seasoned it, and used a cast iron grill pan on the stove. Roasted some red potatoes in olive oil, salt, pepper, sage and rosemary, and steamed some baby broccoli. SO flippin good.

What a week! The first week of the month is usually FULL for me. I have a few meetings that consistently meet in the first week, so it always takes planning, and grace from Dave. I was out of the house 4 of the 7 nights. Yikes! The evenings this week should slow down considerably.

Oh…having the Chargers AND the Forty Niners in the playoffs for the last two weeks has done slight damage to our obedience to 100% real food. There may or may not have been a snack or 7 that are not technically “allowed” in the rules. We will imagine this did not occur, and there will be grace all around. kthnxbye

Last week’s menu had some real winners. My favorite item was the crab cakes. They were a bit of a labor of love, but so so worth the effort. I used a large biscuit cutter to shape them, and used bread crumbs in place of panko. They turned out really delish, but next time I make them, I will have to do something about the breading. It was a little crumbly.

My second favorite was the beef pot roast. I ordered a grass-fed beef roast from my local CSA. Honestly, grass-fed beef has such a different flavor. The only change I made was to add potatoes to the crock pot for the last hour. Pretty yum!